Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven't been burned as witches since 1727, life isn't exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them? Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women's lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother.

How to Build a Girl

It's 1990. Johanna Morrigan, 14, has shamed herself so badly on local TV that she decides that there's no point in being Johanna anymore and reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde - fast-talking, hard-drinking gothic hero and full-time Lady Sex Adventurer. She will save her poverty-stricken Bohemian family by becoming a writer - like Jo in Little Women, or the Brontës - but without the dying-young bit.

Bad Feminist: Essays

A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking listeners on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown).

The Female Eunuch

A worldwide best seller, The Female Eunuch is a landmark book in the history of the women's movement and a ground-breaking feminist tract. Drawing from history, literature, and popular culture - past and present - Germaine Greer's searing examination of women's oppression is both an important social commentary and a passionately argued polemical masterpiece. This is one of the most famous, most widely read books on feminism ever written.

Girl Walks into a Bar...: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle

Anyone who saw an episode of Saturday Night Live between 1999 and 2006 knows Rachel Dratch. She was hilarious! So what happened to her? After a misbegotten part as Jenna on the pilot of 30 Rock, Dratch was only getting offered roles as "Lesbians. Secretaries. Sometimes secretaries who are lesbians." Her career at a low point, Dratch suddenly had time for yoga, dog- sitting, learning Spanish - and dating. After all, what did a forty-something single woman living in New York have to lose?

A Book for Her

The hilarious memoir from award-winning comedian Bridget Christie. When Bridget Christie walked into her local bookshop, she thought she'd come out with a book (hopefully like you've just done). And maybe a calendar of cute photos of cats (hopefully unlike you've just done). The last thing she thought she'd be leaving with was the need for a new wave of feminism and the start of an incredibly successful career.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)

For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris - Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut. Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives - the ones we'd like to pretend never happened - are in fact the ones that define us. In Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor.

Heartburn

Is it possible to write a sidesplitting novel about the breakup of the perfect marriage? If the writer is Nora Ephron, the answer is a resounding yes. For in this inspired confection of adultery, revenge, group therapy, and pot roast, the creator of Sleepless in Seattle reminds us that comedy depends on anguish as surely as a proper gravy depends on flour and butter.

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

From the outrageously filthy and oddly innocent comedienne Sarah Silverman comes a memoir—her first book—that is at once shockingly personal, surprisingly poignant, and still pee-in-your-pants funny. If you like Sarah’s television show The Sarah Silverman Program, or memoirs such as Chelsea Handler’s Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea and Artie Lange’s Too Fat to Fish, you’ll love The Bedwetter.

Modern Romance: An Investigation

At some point every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it's wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history.

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own

Using her own experiences as a starting point, journalist and cultural critic Kate Bolick invites us into her carefully considered, passionately lived life, weaving together the past and present to examine why she - along with over 100 million American women, whose ranks keep growing - remains unmarried.

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's 'Learned'

For readers or listeners of Nora Ephron, Tina Fey, and David Sedaris, this hilarious, poignant, and extremely frank collection of personal essays confirms Lena Dunham - the acclaimed creator, producer, and star of HBO's Girls - as one of the brightest and most original writers working today.

Amazon Customer says:"Some interesting parts, but on the whole... meh"

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

Men Explain Things to Me

In Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit takes on the conversations between men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don't. The ultimate problem, she shows in her comic, scathing essay, is female self-doubt and the silencing of women. Rebecca Solnit is the author of fourteen books about civil society, popular power, uprisings, art, environment, place, pleasure, politics, hope, and memory, most recently The Faraway Nearby, a book on empathy and storytelling.

Bossypants

Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true. At last, Tina Fey's story can be told....

I Don’t Care about Your Band: What I Learned from Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, and Other Guys I’ve Dated

In the tradition of Cynthia Heimel and Chelsea Handler, and with the boisterous iconoclasm of Amy Sedaris, Julie Klausner's candid and funny debut I Don't Care about Your Band sheds light on the humiliations we endure to find love - and the lessons that can be culled from the wreckage. I Don't Care about Your Band posits that lately the worst guys to date are the ones who seem sensitive. It's the jerks in nice guy clothing, not the players in Ed Hardy, who break the hearts of modern girls.

Gonzo Girl: A Novel

Inspired by the author's experiences working with Hunter S. Thompson, an exhilarating, full-speed-ahead roman à clef about an ambitious young writer who takes a job as an assistant to an unmotivated, drug-addled literary icon and helps him finish his long-awaited novel - by any means necessary.

Just Kids

Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late 60s and 70s and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.

Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters

Feminism isn't dead. It just isn't very cool anymore. Enter Full Frontal Feminism, a book that embodies the forward-looking messages that author Jessica Valenti propagated as founder of the popular website, Feministing.com. This revised edition includes a new foreword by Valenti, reflecting upon what’s happened in the five years since Full Frontal Feminism was originally published.

He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know

Double standards are nothing new. Women deal with them every day. Take the common truism that women who sleep around are sluts while men are studs. Why is it that men grow distinguished and sexily gray as they age while women just get saggy and haggard? Have you ever wondered how a young woman is supposed to both virginal and provocatively enticing at the same time?

Why Not Me?

In Why Not Me? Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it's falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or, most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you're constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

Uganda Be Kidding Me

Wherever Chelsea Handler travels, one thing is certain: she always ends up in the land of the ridiculous. Now, in this uproarious collection, she sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers her most absurd and hilarious stories ever.

Grace's Guide: The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown-up

Infused with her trademark saucy, sweet, and funny voice, Grace’s Guide is a tongue-in-cheek handbook for millennials, encompassing everything a young or new (or regular or old) adult needs to know, from surviving a breakup to recovering from a hangover. Read by the author in her inimitable style, Grace’s Guide features interactive elements and exclusive stories from Grace’s own misadventures - like losing her virginity solely because her date took her to a Macaroni Grill - and many other hilarious lessons she learned the hard way.

Publisher's Summary

Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven't been burned as witches since 1727, life isn't exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them?

Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women's lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from the riot of adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother. With rapier wit, Moran slices right to the truth - whether it's about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or children - to jump-start a new conversation about feminism. With humor, insight, and verve, How To Be a Woman lays bare the reasons why female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself.

Usually I can't get through a book of comical columns. This is the rare exception. Caitlin touches on EVERYTHING a woman has ever grappled with, but rarely will bring up, even to her best friend. With every topic, with relentless British humor, she brings you to a place of seeing the most common of things totally differently. From Brazilian waxes to high heels to childbirth to one of the funniest, most astute pieces on relationships I've ever read, she irreverently tears the conventional, cultural norms to shreds and offers up a lucid, common sense look at things we too often inanely follow like lemmings.

While walking along the Pacific, listening to How To Be A Woman, a friend rode up on her bike. She's the same age as me, 59, has a successful business and who ran so much, prepping for a marathon to impress her kids, that she got plantar fasciitis. That was two months ago and she can still not walk far, never mind run. She breathlessly, sweating profusely, related how she goes to spin class three times a week, swims every day she can, and bikes umpteen miles to LOSE WEIGHT. This woman was, before she stated all this marathon training, MUCH THINNER THAN ME (and I'm a person whom no one considers fat, ok, except me,) and married to a guy who adores her no matter what she weighs. Having been quite happy race walking in the sunshine by the sea, I would have instantly switched to feeling like a clumsy elephant if it weren't for this book, to which I was listening. Caitlin is my heroine. She brings the insanity women just take for granted front and center and kept making me say to myself, "Well, of course!"

This book also provoked numerous discussions with friends and family; the most amazing conversations about subjects we'd never touched before. This is such a mind opening book, so informative, while causing one to constantly laugh out loud (which is no simple feat for a book.)

The first chapter is deceptive and Caitlin, stand up comedian she is, can be a bit loud. But stick with it, please, and then laugh your head off and, if you're a woman, be prepared to feel far more secure in your own sneakers than you did at the start. If you're a man, be prepared to actually start to understand those female enigmas around you. And no matter who you are, you will, without a doubt, look at everything around you in a whole new light.

This is a must read for every woman out there. I think it would help many a girl to relax and not take them selves so seriously.

Caitlin lays it on the line just how crazy the world has become and what we woman do to try and fit in as normal.

I have already listened to this book twice since I got it in January and I am sure will pull it out every couple of years to listen again to help remind me that I don't have to fit into what the world calls norm to be a women. I am a woman 100% no matter how little or how much effort I put into my appearance and if others don't like it then who cares.

Smart, confident, funny and well-crafted. Moran pulls no punches when discussing the hardest choices women make, everything from abortion to what to call one's private parts. The modern handbook for feminsim.

After the first half hour I really wanted to like this a lot. I was ready for a rockin' hilarious feminist jaunt. It almost was, I guess. Some parts were really funny. I generally agree with Moran about life and stuff. I'm not a big fan of listening to lots of graphic talk about masturbation and the first two or three chapters felt like a forever of, well, I don't know if Audible edits language in these reviews, so I'll leave the actual words unsaid.

General warning for listeners: NSFW or for listening around kids.

I certainly liked Moran more as a mom than as a teenager in this book. I'd be curious to know more about her working life between those two stages. I think her other book or books might focus more on that time in her life.

Where does How to Be a Woman rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This has been my favorite audiobook. Caitlin's delivery makes her words that much more relatable and funny. There were many times I didn't want to leave the car.

What did you like best about this story?

I've read many feminist texts, but this is the first that actually gave me hope about the fate of feminism and women in general. She balances the hysterical with the poignant and moving, and makes some truly excellent points in ways I've not heard before. There is something for everyone here.

What about Caitlin Moran’s performance did you like?

Caitlin's voice is such a part of her writing that hearing her read it makes it so much more effective.

What does Caitlin Moran bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her voice. The stories she tells and the new wave of feminism she is proclaiming somehow becomes even more meaningful and hilarious at the same time with her tone and perfectly timed exclamations. The British accent doesn't hurt when hearing why she prefers to call her breasts "tits" and why women should stop shaving their "muffs."

This is an instant all-time favorite. It's a philosophy primer that’s hilarious — not an easy feat to pull off, especially if you don’t dilute the philosophy. This is a great book for everyone who thought they might be a feminist. It explains everything that defines being a woman these days. She’s not afraid to call out her heroes for stupid comments (Germaine Greer). The personal anecdotes are priceless. A co-worker and I email mail sentences back and forth and crack each other up. The narration is spot-on; Moran's performance comes off as almost a standup concert.

The beginning of the book was wonderful. All cheery and embarrassing stories from her childhood and youth mixed in with some life lessons that she picked up the hard way. Then once we reach her early adulthood the book becomes more of a complaint about everything she doesn't like. Instead of spending six hours ranting about strip clubs, high heels, and how generally awful men are, maybe continue with the personal aspect of the story rather than aim your megaphone at anyone or thing you don't personally enjoy.

What was most disappointing about Caitlin Moran’s story?

The huge cliff it dropped off in the second half. The book was wonderful and funny in the beginning, but about halfway through it turned into one sexist and stereotyping rant after the other.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from How to Be a Woman?

The second half would have been rewritten so as not to come off as isolating all possible readers who occasionally do feminine things and don't whole themselves off in a closet doing angsty things late into their 20s.

Any additional comments?

I can't say enough that I LOVED the first half, but being a woman who occassionally likes a pair of high heels, and does someday want to enjoy her wedding, and doesn't think that strip clubs and burlesque are all that different...we had some differences that in the end were irreconcilable.

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